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Application Overview

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Add2Outlook

.Net Add-in for Outlook 2000, 2003, 2007 and 2010 connected to Exchange 2000, 2003 and 2003 SBS, 2007 and 2010 and for Hosted Environments.

Add2Outlook is a completely new product and was designed for those who use Outlook and want or need client-based, 2-way, unidirectional or bidirectional synchronization.  Add2Outlook is an Outlook Add-in which combines and can replace the functionality of “Add2Outlook 3.0”, “CalendWare” and “Public2PrivateWare 2.6” by providing 2-way synchronization in one workstation based Outlook Com Add-in solution.  Add2Outlook provides a fairly smooth upgrade experience from those other programs, so please refer to the Special Upgrade Instructions.  If migrating to hosted Exchange and you are currently using Add2Exchange, make a note of the Add2Exchange relationships, by opening the console and export the setup, save it and then remove all the relationships and select to remove the destination items prior to the migration.  Then you will remake the relationships in Add2Outlook after the migration.

When installed, Add2Outlook consists of buttons or ribbon tools which are added to the bottom left hand corner of Outlook 2003 or the top of the screen in the Add-ins tab in Outlook 2007 and 2010.  You can access the Add2Outlook options panel in Tools, Options, Com Add-ins (2003) or by right clicking any folder, in 2007 and 2010 by File, Options, Add-ins, Add-in options.

* The SyncNow button activates the sync process.

The Start/Stop Timer will activate and deactivate the timer.  The timer is started automatically when Outlook opens.
The Add2Outlook console or options page creates the one-way or two one way (two-way) “relationships” from folders you want to sync.  Each relationship is actually one way, made from the source and copied to the destination.  Each of those relationships can be unidirectional or bidirectional in information flow.  People confuse one way and two way to mean the information flows one way, from source to destination, or two way, with information flowing both ways, when editing a destination item and the change flows back to the source.  All relationships are one way, and can be unidirectional or bidirectional on information flow.  If you want anything made in folder one to get synced to folder two, then you need one relationship from one to two.  If you want anything made in folder two to go to one, you need one relationship from two to one.  Each of those 2 one way relationships can either be unidirectional or bidirectional on information flow, depending on the rules of THAT relationship.

A single one-way relationship is a relationship between 2 folders, calendar, contact or task, either in private-to-public, public-to-private, or private-to-private combinations available in an Outlook profile.  Either folder can be within a private PST, server-side mailbox, or public folder.  Although Add2Outlook does not have to be connected to an Exchange Server to do replication between folders within a PST; the most common use of Add2Outlook is to synchronize a group or public folder to a private folder and vice versa so that your smartphone or mobile device synchronization software, such as Microsoft’s Active Sync or Blackberry, can bring it to your smartphone.

The first time replication occurs, the items are copied from the source folder to the destination folder based on the rules of that relationship.  The next time replication occurs; the items are updated, changed, untied and recopied or removed, depending on your predefined “relationship rules”.  If a user makes changes to their destination copy of the source folder item, the relationship rules within Add2Outlook can be set to untie the original copy to preserve the changes made in the private destination copy and then Add2Outlook will make a new tied copy from the source.  The rules can also be set to update the source from the changed destination copy.  If the source item was deleted, the destination item can be deleted or the copy can be marked as “deleted”, creating an orphan item which will never be updated again.  The Add2Outlook rule of the relationship can be set to do nothing at all, also leaving an orphan.  You can also delete or mark the source item “deleted” if you delete the destination item copy, a very powerful feature which should be reserved for special uses and power users.

Once set up, Add2Outlook can work on a manual basis and can be set to a timed or reoccurring schedule in the background and is by default set to 5 minutes.  The synchronization occurs on its own thread, thereby minimizing the effect on a user.  In order for replication to occur, Outlook has to be open in the correct profile in order to synchronize and if syncing from a public folder, the Exchange Server has to be available and online.

This product has almost all the same features as Add2Exchange Standard Edition, but is installed on the workstation, and unlike Add2Exchange, cannot replicate from public-to-public folders.  Add2Outlook has the advantage over Add2Exchange because it works with PST files, which the server-based product could never do.  For more information on our workstation and Outlook independent server-based product, Add2Exchange, go to: Products.

The Add2Exchange product can be installed on the Exchange server, a Virtual Machine, a utility or file server for centralized relationship management and works with Outlook Web Access and most every smartphone and mobile device currently made.  We do not recommend installing it on a Terminal Server because it gets automatically activated for all users, but it can be if this is not a problem.  Add2Outlook can be installed on a non-dedicated workstation, but if many relationships are to be set up, in order to maintain a tight Exchange security model, the software could and should be installed on a dedicated replication workstation.

Add2Outlook can make an unlimited number of relationships per folder type, but is not the ideal product if you are not in a hosted Exchange environment because it uses some bandwidth.  If in a non hosted environment or replicating to PST files, if possible, consider using the Server Side family of products: Add2Exchange Standard and Add2Exchange Enterprise.  Each relationship is treated separately and can act on the same or different folders for two-way replication.  Add2Outlook and Add2Exchange can coexist in the same organization.  Check with Technical support if this applies to you for best practices in this unique situation.

The following are scenarios of how Add2Outlook can solve common calendar, contact, task or note replication needs. In our examples, we will use calendar replication.

2-way Public-to-Private Calendar Replication

This relationship scenario is useful to have public calendar items automatically copied to a local private calendar folder so it can be brought down to a smartphone or mobile device.  All calendar items falling within the replication date range specified in the relationship are replicated.

 

 

The second relationship can be set so that any items created on the smartphone or mobile device or in Outlook can be copied to that calendar (or even a different departmental calendar).

 

 

Local .PST to Server-side Mailbox Folder or Server-side Public Folder

This unique situation, where the private calendar is located in an (offline) Outlook “.PST” file must be replicated to a server-side mailbox calendar or server-side public (personal) calendar.  Workstation based software such as Add2Outlook are the only solution – it can’t be done in server-based software because the PST file folder is usually not available to Exchange.

Private-to-Private Calendar Replication

This scenario can be used within a user’s private folders to another private folder.  It is possible to use Add2Outlook if replicating from server-side mailboxes to other delegated server-side mailboxes, but our other solution: Add2Exchange for calendars is a much more stable solution for this.  If Add2Outlook is used for this scenario; the user must have full OWNER status to the destination user’s mailbox (at least reviewer of the Mailbox and Owner of the replicated folder).  The folders must be open automatically on Outlook startup, the replication will wait to sync in offline cached mode when the Exchange Server goes back online.  The workstation has to always be in Outlook and should not go to sleep or go offline.

 

 

Public-to-Public Replication

This scenario CANNOT BE CREATED with this client-side product. If this kind of relationship is desired, try Add2Exchange Standard or Add2Exchange Enterprise.